Keeping Up With the Steins. (PG-13) When his obnoxious ex-boss throws the world's most lavish bar mitzvah for Junior, successful Hollywood agent Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Piven, doing a family-friendly version of his Entourage character) decides he has to go one better for his own son Benjamin (Daryl Sabara, who has gotten progressively worse since his breakthrough in the first Spy Kids). Benjamin's not a fan of this plan, and decides to annoy his father by inviting his estranged grandfather Irwin (Garry Marshall, father of first-time director Scott) to town two weeks early. What ensues — Reading Hebrew is hard! Vegans are flakey! Jews sure do like to complain! — might have made a pretty good half-hour sitcom episode, but it's a reach for a feature. Jewish boys who've undergone the ritual may find more to identify with here than most. (Thompson) PF
The Proposition. (R) Reviewed this issue. TV
Waist Deep. (R) Vondie Curtis Hall's irrational and contradictory crime thriller stars Tyrese Gibson (2 Fast 2 Furious) as an indestructible ex-con who, with a sullen but sizzling L.A. streetwalker (Meagan Good), sets out to find his kidnapped son. They raise ransom money on a well-publicized 24-hour crime spree and put two rival street gangs to rout in the process. Supposedly a contemporary Bonnie and Clyde, this is really a tacit endorsement of greedy gangsta life vaguely disguised within a morality play: The Hummers and the heavy artillery of the hip-hopping bad guys look like glossy magazine ads. For its ever-shifting attitudes toward men, women, and murder, Waist Deep is one of the sloppiest movies ever to reach the screen. With rapper The Game as a one-eyed gang kingpin called Big Meat, whose specialty is chopping arms off disloyal underlings. (Bill Gallo) J14, RON, STCH, STCL
